Just a thought in the back of my mind... While I'm posting bits and pieces of log files and conf files during this process are there security issues to bear in mind about stuff that shouldn't be posted..? I notice how sometimes posters' replace IP addresses and other things with 'X's' or '***'s'... any thoughts..? (hopefully that doesn't turn out to be an ironically dumb question after the fact...)

Also I see this when using apt-get...
I've had a search about this and there are differing solutions that have not changed anything on my server..?

I thought I'd post some of what's happening before and after the timestamps you identified because I'm new to this - trying to get a bit of understanding of what's going on around the said timestamps...
/var/log/mail.log at 13:26:**

It would be worth having a look at the Dovecot configuration, too, so please post /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.

Click to expand...

/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

Code:

## Dovecot configuration file
# If you're in a hurry, see http://wiki.dovecot.org/QuickConfiguration
# "dovecot -n" command gives a clean output of the changed settings. Use it
# instead of copy&pasting this file when posting to the Dovecot mailing list.
# '#' character and everything after it is treated as comments. Extra spaces
# and tabs are ignored. If you want to use either of these explicitly, put the
# value inside quotes, eg.: key = "# char and trailing whitespace "
# Default values are shown for each setting, it's not required to uncomment
# those. These are exceptions to this though: No sections (e.g. namespace {})
# or plugin settings are added by default, they're listed only as examples.
# Paths are also just examples with the real defaults being based on configure
# options. The paths listed here are for configure --prefix=/usr
# --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --with-ssldir=/etc/ssl
# Base directory where to store runtime data.
#base_dir = /var/run/dovecot
# Protocols we want to be serving: imap imaps pop3 pop3s managesieve
# If you only want to use dovecot-auth, you can set this to "none".
#protocols = imap imaps
protocols = imap imaps pop3 pop3s
# A space separated list of IP or host addresses where to listen in for
# connections. "*" listens in all IPv4 interfaces. "[::]" listens in all IPv6
# interfaces. Use "*, [::]" for listening both IPv4 and IPv6.
#
# If you want to specify ports for each service, you will need to configure
# these settings inside the protocol imap/pop3/managesieve { ... } section,
# so you can specify different ports for IMAP/POP3/MANAGESIEVE. For example:
# protocol imap {
# listen = *:10143
# ssl_listen = *:10943
# ..
# }
# protocol pop3 {
# listen = *:10100
# ..
# }
# protocol managesieve {
# listen = *:12000
# ..
# }
#listen = *
# Disable LOGIN command and all other plaintext authentications unless
# SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability). Note that if the remote IP
# matches the local IP (ie. you're connecting from the same computer), the
# connection is considered secure and plaintext authentication is allowed.
#disable_plaintext_auth = yes
# Should all IMAP and POP3 processes be killed when Dovecot master process
# shuts down. Setting this to "no" means that Dovecot can be upgraded without
# forcing existing client connections to close (although that could also be
# a problem if the upgrade is eg. because of a security fix). This however
# means that after master process has died, the client processes can't write
# to log files anymore.
#shutdown_clients = yes
##
## Logging
##
# Log file to use for error messages, instead of sending them to syslog.
# /dev/stderr can be used to log into stderr.
#log_path =
# Log file to use for informational and debug messages.
# Default is the same as log_path.
#info_log_path =
# Prefix for each line written to log file. % codes are in strftime(3)
# format.
#log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S "
log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S "
# Syslog facility to use if you're logging to syslog. Usually if you don't
# want to use "mail", you'll use local0..local7. Also other standard
# facilities are supported.
#syslog_facility = mail
##
## SSL settings
##
# IP or host address where to listen in for SSL connections. Remember to also
# add imaps and/or pop3s to protocols setting. Defaults to same as "listen"
# setting if not specified.
#ssl_listen =
# SSL/TLS support: yes, no, required. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/SSL.txt>
#ssl = yes
# PEM encoded X.509 SSL/TLS certificate and private key. They're opened before
# dropping root privileges, so keep the key file unreadable by anyone but
# root.
#ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem
#ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem
# If key file is password protected, give the password here. Alternatively
# give it when starting dovecot with -p parameter. Since this file is often
# world-readable, you may want to place this setting instead to a different
# root owned 0600 file by using !include_try <path>.
#ssl_key_password =
# File containing trusted SSL certificate authorities. Set this only if you
# intend to use ssl_verify_client_cert=yes. The CAfile should contain the
# CA-certificate(s) followed by the matching CRL(s).
#ssl_ca_file =
# Request client to send a certificate. If you also want to require it, set
# ssl_require_client_cert=yes in auth section.
#ssl_verify_client_cert = no
# Which field from certificate to use for username. commonName and
# x500UniqueIdentifier are the usual choices. You'll also need to set
# ssl_username_from_cert=yes.
#ssl_cert_username_field = commonName
# How often to regenerate the SSL parameters file. Generation is quite CPU
# intensive operation. The value is in hours, 0 disables regeneration
# entirely.
#ssl_parameters_regenerate = 168
# SSL ciphers to use
#ssl_cipher_list = ALL:!LOW:!SSLv2
# Show protocol level SSL errors.
#verbose_ssl = no
##
## Login processes
##
# </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/LoginProcess.txt>
# Directory where authentication process places authentication UNIX sockets
# which login needs to be able to connect to. The sockets are created when
# running as root, so you don't have to worry about permissions. Note that
# everything in this directory is deleted when Dovecot is started.
#login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login
# chroot login process to the login_dir. Only reason not to do this is if you
# wish to run the whole Dovecot without roots. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Rootless.txt>
#login_chroot = yes
# User to use for the login process. Create a completely new user for this,
# and don't use it anywhere else. The user must also belong to a group where
# only it has access, it's used to control access for authentication process.
# Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/UserIds.txt>
#login_user = dovecot
# Set max. process size in megabytes. If you don't use
# login_process_per_connection you might need to grow this.
#login_process_size = 64
# Should each login be processed in it's own process (yes), or should one
# login process be allowed to process multiple connections (no)? Yes is more
# secure, espcially with SSL/TLS enabled. No is faster since there's no need
# to create processes all the time.
#login_process_per_connection = yes
# Number of login processes to keep for listening new connections.
#login_processes_count = 3
# Maximum number of login processes to create. The listening process count
# usually stays at login_processes_count, but when multiple users start logging
# in at the same time more extra processes are created. To prevent fork-bombing
# we check only once in a second if new processes should be created - if all
# of them are used at the time, we double their amount until the limit set by
# this setting is reached.
#login_max_processes_count = 128
# Maximum number of connections allowed per each login process. This setting
# is used only if login_process_per_connection=no. Once the limit is reached,
# the process notifies master so that it can create a new login process.
#login_max_connections = 256
# Greeting message for clients.
#login_greeting = Dovecot ready.
# Space separated list of trusted network ranges. Connections from these
# IPs are allowed to override their IP addresses and ports (for logging and
# for authentication checks). disable_plaintext_auth is also ignored for
# these networks. Typically you'd specify your IMAP proxy servers here.
#login_trusted_networks =
# Space-separated list of elements we want to log. The elements which have
# a non-empty variable value are joined together to form a comma-separated
# string.
#login_log_format_elements = user=<%u> method=%m rip=%r lip=%l %c
# Login log format. %$ contains login_log_format_elements string, %s contains
# the data we want to log.
#login_log_format = %$: %s
##
## Mailbox locations and namespaces
##
# Location for users' mailboxes. This is the same as the old default_mail_env
# setting. The default is empty, which means that Dovecot tries to find the
# mailboxes automatically. This won't work if the user doesn't have any mail
# yet, so you should explicitly tell Dovecot the full location.
#
# If you're using mbox, giving a path to the INBOX file (eg. /var/mail/%u)
# isn't enough. You'll also need to tell Dovecot where the other mailboxes are
# kept. This is called the "root mail directory", and it must be the first
# path given in the mail_location setting.
#
# There are a few special variables you can use, eg.:
#
# %u - username
# %n - user part in user@domain, same as %u if there's no domain
# %d - domain part in user@domain, empty if there's no domain
# %h - home directory
#
# See </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Variables.txt> for full list.
# Some examples:
#
# mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
# mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
# mail_location = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%1n/%n:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%1n/%n
#
# </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/MailLocation.txt>
#
#mail_location =
# If you need to set multiple mailbox locations or want to change default
# namespace settings, you can do it by defining namespace sections.
#
# You can have private, shared and public namespaces. Private namespaces
# are for user's personal mails. Shared namespaces are for accessing other
# users' mailboxes that have been shared. Public namespaces are for shared
# mailboxes that are managed by sysadmin. If you create any shared or public
# namespaces you'll typically want to enable ACL plugin also, otherwise all
# users can access all the shared mailboxes, assuming they have permissions
# on filesystem level to do so.
#
# REMEMBER: If you add any namespaces, the default namespace must be added
# explicitly, ie. mail_location does nothing unless you have a namespace
# without a location setting. Default namespace is simply done by having a
# namespace with empty prefix.
#namespace private {
# Hierarchy separator to use. You should use the same separator for all
# namespaces or some clients get confused. '/' is usually a good one.
# The default however depends on the underlying mail storage format.
#separator =
# Prefix required to access this namespace. This needs to be different for
# all namespaces. For example "Public/".
#prefix =
# Physical location of the mailbox. This is in same format as
# mail_location, which is also the default for it.
#location =
# There can be only one INBOX, and this setting defines which namespace
# has it.
#inbox = no
# If namespace is hidden, it's not advertised to clients via NAMESPACE
# extension. You'll most likely also want to set list=no. This is mostly
# useful when converting from another server with different namespaces which
# you want to deprecate but still keep working. For example you can create
# hidden namespaces with prefixes "~/mail/", "~%u/mail/" and "mail/".
#hidden = yes
# Show the mailboxes under this namespace with LIST command. This makes the
# namespace visible for clients that don't support NAMESPACE extension.
# "children" value lists child mailboxes, but hides the namespace prefix.
#list = yes
# Namespace handles its own subscriptions. If set to "no", the parent
# namespace handles them (empty prefix should always have this as "yes")
#subscriptions = yes
#}
# Example shared namespace configuration
#namespace shared {
#separator = /
# Mailboxes are visible under "shared/user@domain/"
# %%n, %%d and %%u are expanded to the destination user.
#prefix = shared/%%u/
# Mail location for other users' mailboxes. Note that %variables and ~/
# expands to the logged in user's data. %%n, %%d, %%u and %%h expand to the
# destination user's data.
#location = maildir:%%h/Maildir:INDEX=~/Maildir/shared/%%u
# Use the default namespace for saving subscriptions.
#subscriptions = no
# List the shared/ namespace only if there are visible shared mailboxes.
#list = children
#}
# System user and group used to access mails. If you use multiple, userdb
# can override these by returning uid or gid fields. You can use either numbers
# or names. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/UserIds.txt>
#mail_uid =
#mail_gid =
# Group to enable temporarily for privileged operations. Currently this is
# used only with INBOX when either its initial creation or dotlocking fails.
# Typically this is set to "mail" to give access to /var/mail.
#mail_privileged_group =
mail_privileged_group = mail
# Grant access to these supplementary groups for mail processes. Typically
# these are used to set up access to shared mailboxes. Note that it may be
# dangerous to set these if users can create symlinks (e.g. if "mail" group is
# set here, ln -s /var/mail ~/mail/var could allow a user to delete others'
# mailboxes, or ln -s /secret/shared/box ~/mail/mybox would allow reading it).
#mail_access_groups =
# Allow full filesystem access to clients. There's no access checks other than
# what the operating system does for the active UID/GID. It works with both
# maildir and mboxes, allowing you to prefix mailboxes names with eg. /path/
# or ~user/.
#mail_full_filesystem_access = no
##
## Mail processes
##
# Enable mail process debugging. This can help you figure out why Dovecot
# isn't finding your mails.
#mail_debug = no
# Log prefix for mail processes. See </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Variables.txt>
# for list of possible variables you can use.
#mail_log_prefix = "%Us(%u): "
# Max. number of lines a mail process is allowed to log per second before it's
# throttled. 0 means unlimited. Typically there's no need to change this
# unless you're using mail_log plugin, which may log a lot. This setting is
# ignored while mail_debug=yes to avoid pointless throttling.
#mail_log_max_lines_per_sec = 10
# Don't use mmap() at all. This is required if you store indexes to shared
# filesystems (NFS or clustered filesystem).
#mmap_disable = no
# Rely on O_EXCL to work when creating dotlock files. NFS supports O_EXCL
# since version 3, so this should be safe to use nowadays by default.
#dotlock_use_excl = yes
# Don't use fsync() or fdatasync() calls. This makes the performance better
# at the cost of potential data loss if the server (or the file server)
# goes down.
#fsync_disable = no
# Mail storage exists in NFS. Set this to yes to make Dovecot flush NFS caches
# whenever needed. If you're using only a single mail server this isn't needed.
#mail_nfs_storage = no
# Mail index files also exist in NFS. Setting this to yes requires
# mmap_disable=yes and fsync_disable=no.
#mail_nfs_index = no
# Locking method for index files. Alternatives are fcntl, flock and dotlock.
# Dotlocking uses some tricks which may create more disk I/O than other locking
# methods. NFS users: flock doesn't work, remember to change mmap_disable.
#lock_method = fcntl
# Drop all privileges before exec()ing the mail process. This is mostly
# meant for debugging, otherwise you don't get core dumps. It could be a small
# security risk if you use single UID for multiple users, as the users could
# ptrace() each others processes then.
#mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no
# Show more verbose process titles (in ps). Currently shows user name and
# IP address. Useful for seeing who are actually using the IMAP processes
# (eg. shared mailboxes or if same uid is used for multiple accounts).
#verbose_proctitle = no
# Valid UID range for users, defaults to 500 and above. This is mostly
# to make sure that users can't log in as daemons or other system users.
# Note that denying root logins is hardcoded to dovecot binary and can't
# be done even if first_valid_uid is set to 0.
#first_valid_uid = 500
#last_valid_uid = 0
# Valid GID range for users, defaults to non-root/wheel. Users having
# non-valid GID as primary group ID aren't allowed to log in. If user
# belongs to supplementary groups with non-valid GIDs, those groups are
# not set.
#first_valid_gid = 1
#last_valid_gid = 0
# Maximum number of running mail processes. When this limit is reached,
# new users aren't allowed to log in.
#max_mail_processes = 512
# Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing
# files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high.
#mail_process_size = 256
# Maximum allowed length for mail keyword name. It's only forced when trying
# to create new keywords.
#mail_max_keyword_length = 50
# ':' separated list of directories under which chrooting is allowed for mail
# processes (ie. /var/mail will allow chrooting to /var/mail/foo/bar too).
# This setting doesn't affect login_chroot, mail_chroot or auth chroot
# settings. If this setting is empty, "/./" in home dirs are ignored.
# WARNING: Never add directories here which local users can modify, that
# may lead to root exploit. Usually this should be done only if you don't
# allow shell access for users. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Chrooting.txt>
#valid_chroot_dirs =
# Default chroot directory for mail processes. This can be overridden for
# specific users in user database by giving /./ in user's home directory
# (eg. /home/./user chroots into /home). Note that usually there is no real
# need to do chrooting, Dovecot doesn't allow users to access files outside
# their mail directory anyway. If your home directories are prefixed with
# the chroot directory, append "/." to mail_chroot. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Chrooting.txt>
#mail_chroot =
##
## Mailbox handling optimizations
##
# The minimum number of mails in a mailbox before updates are done to cache
# file. This allows optimizing Dovecot's behavior to do less disk writes at
# the cost of more disk reads.
#mail_cache_min_mail_count = 0
# When IDLE command is running, mailbox is checked once in a while to see if
# there are any new mails or other changes. This setting defines the minimum
# time in seconds to wait between those checks. Dovecot can also use dnotify,
# inotify and kqueue to find out immediately when changes occur.
#mailbox_idle_check_interval = 30
# Save mails with CR+LF instead of plain LF. This makes sending those mails
# take less CPU, especially with sendfile() syscall with Linux and FreeBSD.
# But it also creates a bit more disk I/O which may just make it slower.
# Also note that if other software reads the mboxes/maildirs, they may handle
# the extra CRs wrong and cause problems.
#mail_save_crlf = no
##
## Maildir-specific settings
##
# By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with a dot.
# Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are directories.
# This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O.
# (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and it's
# done always regardless of this setting)
#maildir_stat_dirs = no
# When copying a message, do it with hard links whenever possible. This makes
# the performance much better, and it's unlikely to have any side effects.
#maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = yes
# When copying a message, try to preserve the base filename. Only if the
# destination mailbox already contains the same name (ie. the mail is being
# copied there twice), a new name is given. The destination filename check is
# done only by looking at dovecot-uidlist file, so if something outside
# Dovecot does similar filename preserving copies, you may run into problems.
# NOTE: This setting requires maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = yes to work.
#maildir_copy_preserve_filename = no
# Assume Dovecot is the only MUA accessing Maildir: Scan cur/ directory only
# when its mtime changes unexpectedly or when we can't find the mail otherwise.
#maildir_very_dirty_syncs = no
##
## mbox-specific settings
##
# Which locking methods to use for locking mbox. There are four available:
# dotlock: Create <mailbox>.lock file. This is the oldest and most NFS-safe
# solution. If you want to use /var/mail/ like directory, the users
# will need write access to that directory.
# dotlock_try: Same as dotlock, but if it fails because of permissions or
# because there isn't enough disk space, just skip it.
# fcntl : Use this if possible. Works with NFS too if lockd is used.
# flock : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS.
# lockf : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS.
#
# You can use multiple locking methods; if you do the order they're declared
# in is important to avoid deadlocks if other MTAs/MUAs are using multiple
# locking methods as well. Some operating systems don't allow using some of
# them simultaneously.
#
# The Debian value for mbox_write_locks differs from upstream Dovecot. It is
# changed to be compliant with Debian Policy (section 11.6) for NFS safety.
# Dovecot: mbox_write_locks = dotlock fcntl
# Debian: mbox_write_locks = fcntl dotlock
#
#mbox_read_locks = fcntl
#mbox_write_locks = fcntl dotlock
# Maximum time in seconds to wait for lock (all of them) before aborting.
#mbox_lock_timeout = 300
# If dotlock exists but the mailbox isn't modified in any way, override the
# lock file after this many seconds.
#mbox_dotlock_change_timeout = 120
# When mbox changes unexpectedly we have to fully read it to find out what
# changed. If the mbox is large this can take a long time. Since the change
# is usually just a newly appended mail, it'd be faster to simply read the
# new mails. If this setting is enabled, Dovecot does this but still safely
# fallbacks to re-reading the whole mbox file whenever something in mbox isn't
# how it's expected to be. The only real downside to this setting is that if
# some other MUA changes message flags, Dovecot doesn't notice it immediately.
# Note that a full sync is done with SELECT, EXAMINE, EXPUNGE and CHECK
# commands.
#mbox_dirty_syncs = yes
# Like mbox_dirty_syncs, but don't do full syncs even with SELECT, EXAMINE,
# EXPUNGE or CHECK commands. If this is set, mbox_dirty_syncs is ignored.
#mbox_very_dirty_syncs = no
# Delay writing mbox headers until doing a full write sync (EXPUNGE and CHECK
# commands and when closing the mailbox). This is especially useful for POP3
# where clients often delete all mails. The downside is that our changes
# aren't immediately visible to other MUAs.
#mbox_lazy_writes = yes
# If mbox size is smaller than this (in kilobytes), don't write index files.
# If an index file already exists it's still read, just not updated.
#mbox_min_index_size = 0
##
## dbox-specific settings
##
# Maximum dbox file size in kilobytes until it's rotated.
#dbox_rotate_size = 2048
# Minimum dbox file size in kilobytes before it's rotated
# (overrides dbox_rotate_days)
#dbox_rotate_min_size = 16
# Maximum dbox file age in days until it's rotated. Day always begins from
# midnight, so 1 = today, 2 = yesterday, etc. 0 = check disabled.
#dbox_rotate_days = 0
##
## IMAP specific settings
##
protocol imap {
# Login executable location.
#login_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
# IMAP executable location. Changing this allows you to execute other
# binaries before the imap process is executed.
#
# This would write rawlogs into user's ~/dovecot.rawlog/, if it exists:
# mail_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/rawlog /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
# </usr/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Debugging.Rawlog.txt>
#
# This would attach gdb into the imap process and write backtraces into
# /tmp/gdbhelper.* files:
# mail_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/gdbhelper /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
#
#mail_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
# Maximum IMAP command line length in bytes. Some clients generate very long
# command lines with huge mailboxes, so you may need to raise this if you get
# "Too long argument" or "IMAP command line too large" errors often.
#imap_max_line_length = 65536
# Maximum number of IMAP connections allowed for a user from each IP address.
# NOTE: The username is compared case-sensitively.
#mail_max_userip_connections = 10
# Support for dynamically loadable plugins. mail_plugins is a space separated
# list of plugins to load.
#mail_plugins =
#mail_plugin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
# IMAP logout format string:
# %i - total number of bytes read from client
# %o - total number of bytes sent to client
#imap_logout_format = bytes=%i/%o
# Override the IMAP CAPABILITY response.
#imap_capability =
# How many seconds to wait between "OK Still here" notifications when
# client is IDLEing.
#imap_idle_notify_interval = 120
# ID field names and values to send to clients. Using * as the value makes
# Dovecot use the default value. The following fields have default values
# currently: name, version, os, os-version, support-url, support-email.
#imap_id_send =
# ID fields sent by client to log. * means everything.
#imap_id_log =
# Workarounds for various client bugs:
# delay-newmail:
# Send EXISTS/RECENT new mail notifications only when replying to NOOP
# and CHECK commands. Some clients ignore them otherwise, for example OSX
# Mail (<v2.1). Outlook Express breaks more badly though, without this it
# may show user "Message no longer in server" errors. Note that OE6 still
# breaks even with this workaround if synchronization is set to
# "Headers Only".
# netscape-eoh:
# Netscape 4.x breaks if message headers don't end with the empty "end of
# headers" line. Normally all messages have this, but setting this
# workaround makes sure that Netscape never breaks by adding the line if
# it doesn't exist. This is done only for FETCH BODY[HEADER.FIELDS..]
# commands. Note that RFC says this shouldn't be done.
# tb-extra-mailbox-sep:
# With mbox storage a mailbox can contain either mails or submailboxes,
# but not both. Thunderbird separates these two by forcing server to
# accept '/' suffix in mailbox names in subscriptions list.
# The list is space-separated.
#imap_client_workarounds =
}

# POP3 executable location. See IMAP's mail_executable above for examples
# how this could be changed.
#mail_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3

# Don't try to set mails non-recent or seen with POP3 sessions. This is
# mostly intended to reduce disk I/O. With maildir it doesn't move files
# from new/ to cur/, with mbox it doesn't write Status-header.
#pop3_no_flag_updates = no

# Support LAST command which exists in old POP3 specs, but has been removed
# from new ones. Some clients still wish to use this though. Enabling this
# makes RSET command clear all \Seen flags from messages.
#pop3_enable_last = no

# If mail has X-UIDL header, use it as the mail's UIDL.
#pop3_reuse_xuidl = no

# Keep the mailbox locked for the entire POP3 session.
#pop3_lock_session = no

# Permanently save UIDLs sent to POP3 clients, so pop3_uidl_format changes
# won't change those UIDLs. Currently this works only with Maildir.
#pop3_save_uidl = no

# POP3 logout format string:
# %i - total number of bytes read from client
# %o - total number of bytes sent to client
# %t - number of TOP commands
# %p - number of bytes sent to client as a result of TOP command
# %r - number of RETR commands
# %b - number of bytes sent to client as a result of RETR command
# %d - number of deleted messages
# %m - number of messages (before deletion)
# %s - mailbox size in bytes (before deletion)
#pop3_logout_format = top=%t/%p, retr=%r/%b, del=%d/%m, size=%s

# Maximum number of POP3 connections allowed for a user from each IP address.
# NOTE: The username is compared case-sensitively.
#mail_max_userip_connections = 3

# ManageSieve executable location. See IMAP's mail_executable above for
# examples how this could be changed.
#mail_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/managesieve

# Maximum ManageSieve command line length in bytes. This setting is
# directly borrowed from IMAP. But, since long command lines are very
# unlikely with ManageSieve, changing this will not be very useful.
#managesieve_max_line_length = 65536

# ManageSieve logout format string:
# %i - total number of bytes read from client
# %o - total number of bytes sent to client
#managesieve_logout_format = bytes=%i/%o

# To fool ManageSieve clients that are focused on timesieved you can
# specify the IMPLEMENTATION capability that the dovecot reports to clients
# (default: "dovecot").
#managesieve_implementation_string = Cyrus timsieved v2.2.13

# The ManageSieve service also uses the sieve and sieve_dir settings
# of the Sieve plugin. These are configured in the plugin {} section of
# this config file.
}

# Authentication cache size in kilobytes. 0 means it's disabled.
# Note that bsdauth, PAM and vpopmail require cache_key to be set for caching
# to be used.
#auth_cache_size = 0
# Time to live in seconds for cached data. After this many seconds the cached
# record is no longer used, *except* if the main database lookup returns
# internal failure. We also try to handle password changes automatically: If
# user's previous authentication was successful, but this one wasn't, the
# cache isn't used. For now this works only with plaintext authentication.
#auth_cache_ttl = 3600
# TTL for negative hits (user not found, password mismatch).
# 0 disables caching them completely.
#auth_cache_negative_ttl = 3600

# Space separated list of realms for SASL authentication mechanisms that need
# them. You can leave it empty if you don't want to support multiple realms.
# Many clients simply use the first one listed here, so keep the default realm
# first.
#auth_realms =

# Default realm/domain to use if none was specified. This is used for both
# SASL realms and appending @domain to username in plaintext logins.
#auth_default_realm =

# List of allowed characters in username. If the user-given username contains
# a character not listed in here, the login automatically fails. This is just
# an extra check to make sure user can't exploit any potential quote escaping
# vulnerabilities with SQL/LDAP databases. If you want to allow all characters,
# set this value to empty.
#auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@

# Username character translations before it's looked up from databases. The
# value contains series of from -> to characters. For example "#@/@" means
# that '#' and '/' characters are translated to '@'.
#auth_username_translation =

# Username formatting before it's looked up from databases. You can use
# the standard variables here, eg. %Lu would lowercase the username, %n would
# drop away the domain if it was given, or "%n-AT-%d" would change the '@' into
# "-AT-". This translation is done after auth_username_translation changes.
#auth_username_format =

# If you want to allow master users to log in by specifying the master
# username within the normal username string (ie. not using SASL mechanism's
# support for it), you can specify the separator character here. The format
# is then <username><separator><master username>. UW-IMAP uses "*" as the
# separator, so that could be a good choice.
#auth_master_user_separator =

# Username to use for users logging in with ANONYMOUS SASL mechanism
#auth_anonymous_username = anonymous

#
# Password database is used to verify user's password (and nothing more).
# You can have multiple passdbs and userdbs. This is useful if you want to
# allow both system users (/etc/passwd) and virtual users to login without
# duplicating the system users into virtual database.
#
# </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/PasswordDatabase.txt>
#
# By adding master=yes setting inside a passdb you make the passdb a list
# of "master users", who can log in as anyone else. Unless you're using PAM,
# you probably still want the destination user to be looked up from passdb
# that it really exists. This can be done by adding pass=yes setting to the
# master passdb. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Authentication.MasterUsers.txt>

# Users can be temporarily disabled by adding a passdb with deny=yes.
# If the user is found from that database, authentication will fail.
# The deny passdb should always be specified before others, so it gets
# checked first. Here's an example:

# PAM authentication. Preferred nowadays by most systems.
# Note that PAM can only be used to verify if user's password is correct,
# so it can't be used as userdb. If you don't want to use a separate user
# database (passwd usually), you can use static userdb.
# REMEMBER: You'll need /etc/pam.d/dovecot file created for PAM
# authentication to actually work. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/PasswordDatabase.PAM.txt>
passdb pam {
# [session=yes] [setcred=yes] [failure_show_msg=yes] [max_requests=<n>]
# [cache_key=<key>] [<service name>]
#
# session=yes makes Dovecot open and immediately close PAM session. Some
# PAM plugins need this to work, such as pam_mkhomedir.
#
# setcred=yes makes Dovecot establish PAM credentials if some PAM plugins
# need that. They aren't ever deleted though, so this isn't enabled by
# default.
#
# max_requests specifies how many PAM lookups to do in one process before
# recreating the process. The default is 100, because many PAM plugins
# leak memory.
#
# cache_key can be used to enable authentication caching for PAM
# (auth_cache_size also needs to be set). It isn't enabled by default
# because PAM modules can do all kinds of checks besides checking password,
# such as checking IP address. Dovecot can't know about these checks
# without some help. cache_key is simply a list of variables (see
# /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/Variables.txt) which must match
# for the cached data to be used.
# Here are some examples:
# %u - Username must match. Probably sufficient for most uses.
# %u%r - Username and remote IP address must match.
# %u%s - Username and service (ie. IMAP, POP3) must match.
#
# The service name can contain variables, for example %Ls expands to
# pop3 or imap.
#
# Some examples:
# args = session=yes %Ls
# args = cache_key=%u dovecot
#args = dovecot
}

# System users (NSS, /etc/passwd, or similiar)
# In many systems nowadays this uses Name Service Switch, which is
# configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf. </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/AuthDatabase.Passwd.txt>
#passdb passwd {
# [blocking=yes] - See userdb passwd for explanation
#args =
#}

#
# User database specifies where mails are located and what user/group IDs
# own them. For single-UID configuration use "static".
#
# </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/UserDatabase.txt>
#

# "prefetch" user database means that the passdb already provided the
# needed information and there's no need to do a separate userdb lookup.
# This can be made to work with SQL and LDAP databases, see their example
# configuration files for more information how to do it.
# </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/UserDatabase.Prefetch.txt>
#userdb prefetch {
#}

# System users (NSS, /etc/passwd, or similiar). In many systems nowadays this
# uses Name Service Switch, which is configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf.
# </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/AuthDatabase.Passwd.txt>
userdb passwd {
# [blocking=yes] - By default the lookups are done in the main dovecot-auth
# process. This setting causes the lookups to be done in auth worker
# proceses. Useful with remote NSS lookups that may block.
# NOTE: Be sure to use this setting with nss_ldap or users might get
# logged in as each others!
#args =
}

# static settings generated from template </usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/wiki/UserDatabase.Static.txt>
#userdb static {
# Template for the fields. Can return anything a userdb could normally
# return. For example:
#
# args = uid=500 gid=500 home=/var/mail/%u
#
# If you use deliver, it needs to look up users only from the userdb. This
# of course doesn't work with static because there is no list of users.
# Normally static userdb handles this by doing a passdb lookup. This works
# with most passdbs, with PAM being the most notable exception. If you do
# the user verification another way, you can add allow_all_users=yes to
# the args in which case the passdb lookup is skipped.
#
#args =
#}

# User to use for the process. This user needs access to only user and
# password databases, nothing else. Only shadow and pam authentication
# requires roots, so use something else if possible. Note that passwd
# authentication with BSDs internally accesses shadow files, which also
# requires roots. Note that this user is NOT used to access mails.
# That user is specified by userdb above.
user = root

# Directory where to chroot the process. Most authentication backends don't
# work if this is set, and there's no point chrooting if auth_user is root.
# Note that valid_chroot_dirs isn't needed to use this setting.
#chroot =

# If you wish to use another authentication server than dovecot-auth, you can
# use connect sockets. They are assumed to be already running, Dovecot's master
# process only tries to connect to them. They don't need any other settings
# than the path for the master socket, as the configuration is done elsewhere.
# Note that the client sockets must exist in the login_dir.
#auth external {
# socket connect {
# master {
# path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
# }
# }
#}

##
## Dictionary server settings
##

# Dictionary can be used by some plugins to store key=value lists, such as
# quota, expire and acl plugins. The dictionary can be used either directly or
# though a dictionary server. The following dict block maps dictionary names to
# URIs when the server is used. These can then be referenced using URIs in
# format "proxy::<name>".

# ACL plugin. vfile backend reads ACLs from "dovecot-acl" file from maildir
# directory. You can also optionally give a global ACL directory path where
# ACLs are applied to all users' mailboxes. The global ACL directory contains
# one file for each mailbox, eg. INBOX or sub.mailbox. cache_secs parameter
# specifies how many seconds to wait between stat()ing dovecot-acl file
# to see if it changed.
#acl = vfile:/etc/dovecot/dovecot-acls:cache_secs=300

# Trash plugin. When saving a message would make user go over quota, this
# plugin automatically deletes the oldest mails from configured mailboxes
# until the message can be saved within quota limits. The configuration file
# is a text file where each line is in format: <priority> <mailbox name>
# Mails are first deleted in lowest -> highest priority number order
#trash = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-trash.conf

# Expire plugin. Mails are expunged from mailboxes after being there the
# configurable time. The first expiration date for each mailbox is stored in
# a dictionary so it can be quickly determined which mailboxes contain
# expired mails. The actual expunging is done in a nightly cronjob, which
# you must set up:
# dovecot --exec-mail ext /usr/lib/dovecot/expire-tool
#expire = Trash 7 Spam 30
#expire_dict = proxy::expire

# Lazy expunge plugin. Currently works only with maildirs. When a user
# expunges mails, the mails are moved to a mailbox in another namespace
# (1st). When a mailbox is deleted, the mailbox is moved to another namespace
# (2nd) as well. Also if the deleted mailbox had any expunged messages,
# they're moved to a 3rd namespace. The mails won't be counted in quota,
# and they're not deleted automatically (use a cronjob or something).
#lazy_expunge = .EXPUNGED/ .DELETED/ .DELETED/.EXPUNGED/

# Sieve plugin (http://wiki.dovecot.org/LDA/Sieve) and ManageSieve service
#
# Location of the active script. When ManageSieve is used this is actually
# a symlink pointing to the active script in the sieve storage directory.
#sieve=~/.dovecot.sieve
#
# The path to the directory where the personal Sieve scripts are stored. For
# ManageSieve this is where the uploaded scripts are stored.
#sieve_dir=~/sieve
}

That's no big deal and shouldn't be causing any of these issues. There is a way to fix it (I can't remember off the top of my head); just search for that error string and you should find a solution.

I wouldn't worry about posting your hostname and IP. Most people replace the numbers for privacy reasons (not everybody wants his forum username associated with his personal [or professional] website, his P2P activities, etc.), not so much security. That said, some unscrupulous individual could, in theory, read a thread that exposes a weakness at a given IP address and attack the server. Seems somewhat unlikely, but possible.

It'll take me a while to digest your configuration. I'll post again once I have a chance.

In the meantime, a preliminary look at your log files does indicate that something is misconfigured:

See attached screenshot for the settings you should be using. We already changed the permissions on /var/vmail to work with Dovecot + Sieve (hence the Maildrop error), so you shouldn't have to touch those.

I assume that the following entries are the result of restarting Dovecot. I could be wrong, so if this keeps happening, we'll investigate further.

If you have a certificate that is issued from a trusted CA, I can help you with configuring Dovecot to use it.

See how the system behaves after setting the Mail tab settings correctly in ISPConfig. I don't think you need to reconfigure ISPConfig after changing those settings, but I'm not positive. In other words, I don't know if ISPConfig recognizes that Dovecot is installed even if it's not selected; maybe it does.

I guess a reconfiguration couldn't hurt, provided that you haven't made many (or any) customizations to the files that would be overwritten, but you can try without reconfiguring first.

Attached Files:

Server Config -> Mail tab
is Dovecot and Sieve identical to the screenshot...
Still no email...? does that email address I gave you do any better..? or anything..?
same as always... in evolution preferences, 'check for supported types' of authentication button is happy for IMAP but not for SMTP it just stalls
Also when evolution goes to check the email it keeps asking me for the password for that account and refuses to authenticate...

Well, if there's no option to reconfigure, you may have to uninstall and then reinstall ISPConfig.

Fortunately, the process appears to affect ISPConfig only, and not all of the other software that you've had to install.

However, the uninstall script will destroy all databases (the ISPConfig database, as well as all databases in /var/lib/mysql/ that were created with ISPConfig). So, be sure to backup all of your databases.

My personal DB backup recipe, which backs-up all MySQL databases on the system, consists of the following command:

Hi all this is my first post here
i am trying to get a issue fixed in my ispconfig that i have had for a while and it doesnt matter what i do i cant seem to get it to work, when i sent email from outlook or my phone or tablet i am getting a error
"Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Hi all this is my first post here
i am trying to get a issue fixed in my ispconfig that i have had for a while and it doesnt matter what i do i cant seem to get it to work, when i sent email from outlook or my phone or tablet i am getting a error
"Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.